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Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-1111
Wild Foxglove
Penstemon cobaea
Wild Foxglove is a short-lived perennial wildflower in the plantain family, sending up one to three stout stems from a woody rhizome in a clumping, non-running habit. Large, tubular white-to-pink flowers marked with purple nectar guides line the upper half of each stem in spring, drawing bumblebees and hummingbirds and serving as a larval host for the Dotted Checkerspot butterfly. It thrives in dry to medium-moisture, sharply drained, acidic ground below pH 6.0 - sandy, loamy or shallow rocky soil - and declines in wet or poorly drained conditions; it often goes dormant through the heat of summer. Plant 1 to 3 feet apart; it self-sows readily unless spent flowerheads are removed before seed set.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 5–8
- Soil
- Sand · Loam
- Moisture
- Dry · Moderate · Well-Drained
Vertical layer
Herbaceous- Soil pH
- 6.8–6.8
- Plant type
- Perennial
- Mature height
- 12–24 in
- Mature spread
- 12–18 in
- Plant spacing
- 12–36 in
- Root type
- Rhizome
- Spread pattern
- Seed
Keep exploring
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Alfalfa
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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